The exhaust passage of a diesel engine is sometimes fitted with a lean NOx catalytic converter (referred to as LNC hereinafter) for reducing and eliminating nitrogen oxides (referred to as NOx hereinafter) from the exhaust gas. In an LNC, NOx is absorbed when the air fuel ratio of the exhaust gas (referred to exhaust A/F hereinafter) is higher than a prescribed level (referred to as a lean condition hereinafter) or when the oxygen content of the exhaust gas is high, and the absorbed NOx is released and reduced to a harmless form when the exhaust A/F is higher than the prescribed level (referred to as a rich condition hereinafter) or when the oxygen content of the exhaust gas is low. Because the capability of the LNC to absorb NOx diminishes as the build up of the NOx therein increases, the combustion state is varied so that the concentration of the reducing agents such as CO and HC is increased while the oxygen concentration is decreased. Thereby, the release of NOx from the LNC is enhanced, and the reduction of the NOx is promoted.
Because the fuel includes sulfur contents, sulfur oxides (referred to as SOx hereinafter) and hydrogen sulfide (referred to as H2S hereinafter) are also emitted with the exhaust gas. When such sulfur contents are absorbed by the LNC, the capability of the LNC to absorb NOx diminishes. Therefore, it is necessary to release the sulfur contents absorbed in the LNC from time to time. The process of releasing sulfur contents from a LNC (referred to as sulfur purging hereinafter) is typically executed by enriching the exhaust A/F and causing the LNC temperature to rise by carrying out an auxiliary fuel injection following the combustion (referred to as post injection hereinafter) in addition to the main fuel injection that is carried out during the intake stroke and thereby supplying unburned fuel to the exhaust passage and heating the LNC beyond a prescribed temperature (see Japanese patent laid open publication Number 2001-173498).
As a sulfur purging adversely affects the fuel economy and causes a thermal degradation of the LNC, it is not desirable to conduct a sulfur purging to an excessive extent. Therefore, it is desired to accurately determine the completion of a sulfur purging process. It is known to estimate the accumulation of SOx from fuel consumption and estimate the expected extent of the release of SOx during a sulfur purging process. Once the estimated extent of the release of SOx reaches prescribed level, the sulfur purging process is terminated. See Japanese patent laid open publication Number 2000-110552. It is also known to provide a SOx sensor at each of the inlet and outlet of the LNC and terminate the sulfur purging process when the accumulated amount of SOx in the LNC falls below a prescribed level. See Japanese patent laid open publication Number 2001-003782.
However, as the method described in Japanese patent laid open publication Number 2000-110552 is based on estimation, it is possible that the sulfur purging may be terminated prematurely or that the sulfur purging may be uselessly continued long after the sulfur purging is complete.
The method described in Japanese patent laid open publication Number 2001-003782 may allow the completion of sulfur purging at a high precision, but because a plurality of sensors must be arranged one next to the other, there may be a problem in securing an adequate mounting space, and the manufacturing cost may be undesirably high.